The UK continues to face major disruption as snow and rain affects power supplies and transport across the country.

Around 35,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland remained without power on Saturday after ice and snow on electricity cables caused widespread cuts the day before. A fashion show as part of Belfast fashion week was about to take place by candlelight on Friday night until power was restored.

Sara McClintock, a spokeswoman for Northern Ireland Electricity, said: "The storm continued throughout the night and so conditions on the ground remain atrocious in many areas. Access to network faults is extremely difficult with up to 6ft of snow drifts. Emergency crews are struggling to get through even in 4x4 vehicles."

Drivers had to contend with snow, strong winds and floods, with trees falling across a number of roads. Scotland, Cumbria, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Lancashire all had road problems, as well as Wrexham, north Wales, Cornwall, West Sussex and Dorset.

The AA issued warnings to motorists that even short journeys could be difficult. Darron Burness, the AA's head of special operations, said: "It's going to be a real witch's brew of driving wind, rain and snow, which will inevitably cause disruption on the roads."

On the railways, First Great Western train services were affected after flooding made a house unstable close to the line near Looe in Cornwall, and no alternative transport could be provided because of poor road conditions.

There were also delays near Hatton in the West Midlands, Ilkley station in West Yorkshire, and in Shrewsbury and West Sussex.

While the south-west is expected to be spared the heavy downpours and flash flooding it suffered on Friday, more than 90 flood risk alerts remain in place.

A landslide and floodwater in Cornwall, thought to have been triggered by torrential rain, caused a building to collapse on Friday. Emergency crews found a woman's body after picking through debris at the Veronica flats in Looe. The body is believed to be that of Susan Norman, who is in her 60s and police said was unaccounted for, having not been heard from since returning to the flat on Thursday night.

A spokesman for the Met Office said more disruption was expected on Saturday and Sunday as the snow moved south. "There are yellow warnings in place, although the snow is weakening as it drifts further south. The most affected areas will continue to be Northern Ireland, the Pennine area, the north and west Midlands. We could have 2-5cm of snow as far south as Essex and Kent."

The temperature was 2C colder than normal, he said, but there was evidence to suggest temperatures were record breaking.